Etymology

obsequious

O1B3S1E1Q10U1I1O1U1S1

Today it means: Excessively eager and attentive to please or to obey instructions; fawning, subservient, servile. Full definition →

Middle English obsequyous ← Latin obsequiōsus ← Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.?
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ep-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éps
  3. Proto-Indo-European*h₁óp(i)
  4. Proto-Italic*op
  5. Latinob
  6. Latinob-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*sekʷ-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*sékʷetor
  9. Proto-Italic*sekʷōr
  10. Latinsequor
  11. Latinobsequor
  12. Latinobsequium
  13. Proto-Indo-European*h₃ed-
  14. Proto-Indo-European*h₃édosder.?
  15. Latinobsequiōsus
  16. Middle Englishobsequyous
  17. English todayobsequious

From Middle English obsequyous, from Latin obsequiōsus (“complaisant, obsequious”), from obsequium (“compliance”), from obsequor (“comply with, yield to”), from ob (“in the direction of, towards”) + sequor (“follow”) (cf. sequel).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.